Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-11-17
OF GENERAL INTEREST.

Nelson Reed, of Stanhope, n. o.,
has raised several pumpkins aggregat-
ing four hundred and fifty pounds in
weight. The largest one weighs eighty
six pounds
Shutdown is the name of a quaint
little place near Big Indian, in the
Catskills, where the people witness the
setting of the sun at three p. m. and
the rising at nine a. m. Four mount
aims nearly surround the settlement.
The people are generally healthy, and
those who have lived there for long
time have an owl-like faculty of seeing
in the gloom.
Eighteen years ago a carpenter
lost his plane while working on a
house at Oswego, N. Y. He hunted
high and low, but found no trace of it.
The other night he dreamed that the
plane was behind the laths at IA certain
point in the house. He went there,
took up clapboard, and found his
tool Like Rip Van Wrinkles gun, the
plane fell to pieces when he took i up.
Among other relics of the mound
builders discovered near Devils Lake.
d. T., by Prof. Montgomery, of the
North Dakota University. is what he
calls ii sacrificial mound, in which,
seventeen inches from the surface, are
wells easily found because of lining
of lime about the sides and layers of
bark on the bottom. These are deep
enough to hold bodies in a sitting pos
ture.
Of a strange freak of nature the
Steuben Republican says that Henry
Zimmerman, of Scott township, has Il
freak of nature in the form of pig
with only two legs, both in front.
Strange to say, it runs about with per-
feet ease with its body clear from the
ground. There is not sign of hip
or leg behind. The pig is four weeks
old and is as fat and healthy as any in
the litter"
The Columbia Sentinel, of Georgia,
publishes this death notice: ''On Fri
day last, just after the sun had kissed
this world good night, and passed into
its bed of crimson and gold, the spirit
of A. G. Sturgis vacated its habitation
of clay, and wendell it's way to the
Father who gave it, and to-day is
walking the glory-lit hills of immortal
ity in the New Jerusalem, where there
is no night.
The latest "fad'' is the interest at
tached to the finding of an old button
shoe. We are told with great SINGER
ity that young girl on finding one
would count the buttons remaining on
it she would be able to tell exactly the
number of years which would elapse
before her marriage, each button repre-
senting one year. 1t is looked upon as
great piece of misfortune (by the
credulous) to find a shoe minus but
tons.
The want of accuracy in shooting,
owing to the imperfect construction of
the cannon in early times. is well illus
trated by the fact that in 1912, at the
battle of Salamanca, 100000 car
tridges and 5000 cannon balls were
fired, with the result of only 5000 men
being put hors de combat. And as late
as 1857, during the Kaffir war, 80, 900
cartridges were fired in single engage
ment in which only twenty-five of the
enemy were killed
From all accounts of the "silver
snake" of Honduras it most resembles
quicksilver in its movements. One
traveller tells of specimen four inches
long and about the size of fence wire
which it was impossible to hold when
taken in the hands. The statement is
repeated, which is said to be made on
good authority. that fowl often eat
these snakes and shortly after can
have the pleasure of doing so again, as
in few minutes one will wiggle
through the alimentary camel and can
perform the feat many times without
firing.
"A new clock that is attracting con-
siderable attention represents the after
deck of steam yacht. Coils of rope
are laid about the deck and two small
boats are suspended from the davits.
/ The dial of the clock is set in front of
/ the wheel house, and in front of it
leading below is the companionway.
/ Above the dial is the wheel; sailor
has his hands on it and is represented
! as steering the yacht. The wheel
moves backward and forward and the
sailor moves with it. Sailors holding
ropes are standing in various attitudes
! about the deck.
The new Florida law requiring the
railway companies to provide separate
! coaches for colored people is very
! burdensome to some of the roads. The
/ Louisville & Nashville represents to
! the Railroad Commissioners that if re-
/ quired to comply with it the companies
will be compelled to haul third coach
very frequently without passengers, or
else assign one of the two coaches to
the colored passengers and the other to
the white, which will necessarily for